Politics
Bargain Hunt expert reveals simple way to find out if your Harry Potter books are worth £30k
A BARGAIN Hunt expert has revealed the simple trick to find out whether your Harry Potter books are worth £30,000.
TV presenter Natasha Raskin Sharp introduced auctioneer Charles Hanson, who explained the signs people should look out for in old book copies.
Natasha Raskin Sharp introduced the segment about the £30k book[/caption]
Natasha introduced the segment, saying: “I have to confess, I’m a bit of a bookworm. Hardbacks, paperbacks, magazines, my house is simply full of things to read.
“But sadly, as an investment, most books aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. But if you’re lucky, you might spot one that is worth a small fortune.
“For example this spellbinding discovery – a first edition Harry Potter book – is about to go under the hammer with a staggering estimate of £20-30,000.
“And the auctioneer who will be holding that sale just so happens to be our very own Charles Hanson.”
Charles went on to detail mistakes including the misspelling of ‘philosopher’[/caption]
She went on to ask Charles: “Surely a victim of its own success, almost every house up and down the country has one of these, so why on earth are you expecting it to sell for a five-figure sum?”
He explained that it could be “easily missed” in a house because it’s “new” in terms of age, but specified the special copies were first editions.
“It’s 1997, but its the first novel written by JK Rowling, but more than that, when we found this book, which our client had bought from a table-top sale,” Charles said, holding it up.
“If you open it up you’ll see it’s a hardback, one of only 500, printed by Bloomsbury in 1997 and 300 went to libraries.”
Another mistake saw JK Rowling referred to as “Joanne”[/caption]
He described how potential owners of the edition of the book should look for, including “tell tale” signs to confirm it is an original.
“There’s obviously tell-tale signs that confirm to us it’s a first edition. You’ve got for example the Staffordshire Library’s archive label here, you’ve also got this all important issue number here,” he said.
“It says in the text there ‘written by Joanne Rowling’, who was she? She’s JK to us now. The other tell-tale signs are on the back. The word ‘philosopher’ is spelt incorrectly.
“Finally, on page 53, you’ve got the equipment for a certain spell, and the word ‘wand’ is accidentally mentioned twice.
First editions of the book can fetch £30,000[/caption]
“It was just obviously duplicated in error. So even now, the soft-back publications of the first editions are fetching thousands.
“But this is hardback, one of only 500, and it’s so important in that great history of Harry Potter.”
Natasha then asked how much the lucky owner paid for that copy of the book, to which Charles stunned viewers by saying it was £1.
“On a summer jumble sale spree, she bought four books for £1,” he said, before the host chimed in: “And within that pound-spend was this book.”
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“All our client wants to do with whatever it makes, she wants to buy a new bathroom,” Charles concluded. “So hopefully, with between £20 and £30,000, I think that bathroom ceiling might know no ceiling.”
At auction the book was sold to a private collector for a whopping £28,500.
Natasha finished the segment by reminding viewers to “check out page 53” if they have an original copy at home.
